SARATOGA SPRINGS â€¦ There was a river of melody in the appealing program Wednesday night as the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Charles Dutoit began their final week in residence at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Tchaikovsky and Rossini can be counted on for good tunes, but the evening’s theme song was the Barber Violin Concerto Op. 14 with soloist Joshua Bell.

A warm and handsome tone and a seamless virtuoso technique characterized Bell’s easy dispatch of the concerto. Though he played with only the slightest apparent vibrato, Bell brought out the piece’s fullest emotional content.

The opening allegro and the subsequent andante can both tug at the heart. But the main theme of the first movement has such an arched grandeur that by the time it arrives at its fullest in the orchestra, one breathes easier. The music may get stormy here and there, but Bell’s confident voice was assuring and magnetic.

If Bell wasn’t already so in demand for more standard repertoire â€¦ he was conductor and soloist in Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall earlier this year â€¦ then one could see him making the Barbera signature work. It fits him that well. But as things stand, the piece can still give him some credibility in American music, since crossover recordings of Bernstein and Gershwin transcriptions don’t really count.

The night began with Rossini’s Overture to “Semiramide,” which was something of an opera in itself with a pack of aria-like solos and plenty of tutti dances and marches. The ending, heavy on the brass and percussion, brought to mind a military regiment.

But that was nothing compared with the startling first entrance of the low brass choir in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 “Pathetique,” which came after intermission. Amid the string’s hushed adagio, the brass came on like a battle cry. But the fight wasn’t joined until the allegro, during which Dutoit showed a fine command of the long and dramatic shifts in tempo and dynamic.

The waltz movement, in the amazing 5/4 time, seemed to have a life of its own, with only a jolt and a jab needed here and there from the conductor. On the other hand, the march seemed to float a bit until the brass brought it home. By the time the quiet and dejected finale in the low strings finally came around, it had been an emotionally exhausting evening of music.